Paul Goble does a great job in bringing Plains Indian lore to a modern audience. His humor and capitivating illustrations make this book a good "read out lound" for preschoolers and early elementary alike. The trickster Iktomi gives us a chance to laugh at our own foibles, while we learn a valuable lesson. Iktomi, it seems, will never learn!

Iktomi is a trickster in Plains Indian folklore. In this tale his conceit gets him into trouble.

Paul Goble is a Caldecott Medal winning illustrator who has a gift for bringing native folktales to life for elementary age children. He has a unique pen, ink and paint technique that brings out the details in Iktomi's dress and gear, as well as animals--such as the prairie dogs and ducks in this tale.

While the main text of the story is told in bold black type, the storyteller is given some hilarious commentary in gray type, which is a delight for children listening to the story. Goble also adds little captions that are fun to read aloud, or that children enjoy looking for on their own.

I prefer folktales that teach a moral, and here the message is clear: pride goes before a fall.

This book is an interesting collection of papers on what the book title calls "environmental history", but what might be better characterized as human-environment interactions, human-ecology, or human-landuse, since that is what most of the essays focus upon. This is a good book for anyone interested in the history of landuse and environmental change in the Northwest.

The readings are aimed at a scholarly audience, so the tempo, tone, and diction are more like "academic" writing and less like "popular" writing. In other words: this book is not always a fast and easy read (this is why I didn't give it 5 stars). Another small criticism: due to the format of the endnotes, I sometimes found it difficult to track down the original references mentioned in the text.

All in all -- important information and a useful book, definitely of regional interest.

Having read several eyewitness accounts to the Battle of the Little Bighorn by Indian participants, several of which included paintings and drawings done by the warriors, I am rather ambivalent about "Red Hawk's Account of Custer's Last Battle." This 1969 book by Paul and Dorothy Goble is told through the eyes of a Red Hawk, a fifteen-year-old Ogala youth. However, although based on Indian accounts of the battle, the character of Red Hawk is a fictional creation. Similarly, the art work is inspired by the Plains Indians paintings of the 1860-1900 period. But, to be fair, in 1969 the legend of Custer was still going strong and the Indian accounts of the battle were not exactly seeing the light of day. Consequently, this book is of interest because it harkens back to a time when the revisionists were rethinking the entire Custer myth and cars were starting to sport the bumper sticker "Custer Died For Your Sins."

We learn on the backflap that the Gobles had visited the U.S. from London in 1959 where they were adopted into the Sioux and Yakima tribes and given the Indian names "Wakinyan Chikala" (Little Thunder) and "Minne Wiyakpawin" (Shining Water). The Gobles visited the battlefield with Crow friends and used their "long acquaintance with Indians ways and people" to try "to bring Custer into perspective a little by keeping to the facts." So, certainly the fact that this book is over thirty years old does explain why in refers to the old name of the Custer Battlefield National Monument and the term Sioux (which, I understand, means "cutthroat" and was given to the Lakota by other Plains tribes). In the end, I conclude that the intentions of the Gobles are honorable. The narrative of "Red Hawk" is broken up periodically by additional historical notes, which usually establish what Custer and the 7th Cavalry were doing at various points in the story. Ultimately, it is their attempt to set the record straight that redeems the effort, and after reading this book you can certainly turn to the authentic Indian accounts and art of the battle.

Who likes being adopted nobody does especially Tall bear when his kola White hawk abanded him at a butte that had a eagles nest on a little tree.His kola who lied to the village that Tall bear was killed by the eagles.

I like this book because it reminds me of two buddies in my class.The part I dont like is when Tall bear kola abandens him at the butte.My opinion about this book is that its a good book it talks about friendship. I'll recomend this book to anybody who likes reading books by the athur PAUL GOBLE.And to people who likes reading novals from Tomie Depola.